A variety of mobile computing devices exist, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, digital cameras, digital players, mobile terminals, etc. These devices perform various functions specific to the device, and are often able to communicate (via wired or wireless connection) with other devices. A single mobile device may, for example, provide Internet access, maintain a personal calendar, provide mobile telephony, and take digital photographs. However, memory capacity is typically limited on mobile devices. Wireless telephones and other mobile devices that create digital photographs, video segments and audio segments must store those segments. Storage of these items usually requires a relatively large amount of memory.
One approach to managing memory constraints on mobile devices is to transfer files to other devices, such as a remotely-located personal computer or dedicated storage equipment. A user may, for example, use a mobile terminal to take photographs, and periodically transfer those photographs to a server or other storage device located in the user's home or elsewhere. In this manner, the number of photographs a user may create (and retain) is not limited by the memory constraints of his or her mobile device. Methods and systems for viewing and otherwise accessing stored images in a mobile network are described in commonly-assigned U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 10/307,410 (titled “Privacy Protection in a Server”) and 10/262,969 (titled “Image Browsing and Downloading in Mobile Networks).
The increasing ease with which users can create and store digital images creates additional challenges, however. As more and more images accumulate, it becomes more and more difficult for a user to organize the images, as well as to find a particular stored image. Accordingly, there remains a need for improved systems and methods for organizing and accessing stored images.